Weddzilla Flash Mob, Say What?!?!?

Yup, its happening! The Weddzilla Flash Mob! On February 24th. Here are the details: http://blog.weddzilla.com/2010/02/weddzilla-flash-mob-washington-dc-feb.html

Steve Kemble (America's Sassiest Lifestyle Guru, Us Weekly Magazine Top Cop, TLC's "Battle of the Wedding Planners" winner, and Golden Globe Awards correspondent) is leading the dance flash mob. He will begin the dance and then our mobbers will join in! You saw Oprah do it. Now it's your chance to be a part of a local wedding related flash mob. 

How to become a part of the mob:
~ There will be a You Tube video coming out soon to teach all you dancers out there the moves. (no rhythm required!)
~ The theme of the dance is top secret- but will be emailed out to you next week.
~ The flash mob will be in a well-known public place in Washington, DC during a busy time of the day
~ It will be taped and immediately made available on You Tube following the Flash Mob.
~ Our goal is to be the biggest flash mob to EVER hit DC!
~ T-shirts will be provided to participants

If you can't be a part of it, be sure to check it out on YouTube later. We'll post a link to it here, so you can share with all your friends!

And be sure to join us at the Weddzilla "Rock the Launch" Party on Thursday evening! Details here: http://event.pingg.com/Weddzilla-Launch

Handmade Etsy Accessories!

We are so excited to finally have all of the etsy accessories we ordered for the Green Wedding Showcase Eco-Fashion Show on Sunday! I thought it would be really great to buy some hand-made pieces to accessorize our great used bridesmaid dresses! Check out the show info here: http://www.greenweddingshowcase.com/ecofashionshow.shtml

But how cute will these be for bridal party accessories?!?!?

credits: They are handmade by RiRiFisch (top), Sprightly Strands Boutique (middle), PegasusMaiden (bottom)

Upcoming Par-tay! Weddzilla "Rock the Launch!"

We are so excited to be joining the Weddzilla.com community! And we are really looking forward to the "Rock the Launch" Party they are hosting on Feb 25th in DC!

Weddzilla Rock The Launch Party
National Museum of Women in the Arts
1250 New York Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20005
February 25th, 2010, 6pm - 9pm

Weddzilla has put together a killer group of celebrity wedding professionals to share their experiences with their fans and members. They are planning an exciting launch party to unveil and introduce their fabulous new website! (And who knows how to better plan a party than a bunch of wedding professionals!?!) Weddzilla.com is going to be "the first online social wedding platform to fully integrate the wedding planning process into popular social networks."

The event is going to be hosted by Steve Kemble! That's right Steve Kemble from TLC's “Battle of the Wedding Planners”. It is going to be a truly ROCKIN' night!

"Rock the Launch" with us! Get the deets here and get on the guest list! Can't make it? We'll be tweeting from the event (@ruffleswap) and later blogging about it here! Hope to see you there!

What Would Christian Siriano Do? Project: Eco-Fashion Show (part 1)

On February 21st, Project: Ruffle Swap will be showing six gently-worn fashions in the Aveda Institute Eco-Fashion Show at the Mid-Atlantic Green Wedding Showcase (College Park, MD).  Bubbling with excitement to participate in an environmentally friendly fashionshow, we tried to remain calm... we are pragmatic, problem-solvers who love to find a perfect balance of fashion, eco-friendliness, and wallet-friendliness.  But, which gently worn dresses should we select?  What accessories should be used to show that pre-loved dresses from the last decade (yes, 2009) and one dress that is...wait for it...over 30 years old, are still fabulous in 2010?  We wondered, what would those great folks on Project Runway do? More importantly, What Would Christian Siriano Do?

Mr. Siriano trends to classic shapes, minimum accessories, and if possible some ruffles! So we thought gently pre-worn dresses from great designers like Watters & Watters, Alfred Angelo, and Ann Taylor would be great.  Plus, a 1970s vintage Young Edwardian would be a very Brooklyn-chic bridal gown.  To prove that these fashions are not "so 2000-and-late", we added in some great Etsy headbands, feather clips, and cute boleros.  Hopefully, everyone agrees the looks are quite "fierce" and "ferosh".  BTW: Christian Siriano is originally from MD and his bridal fashions and wedding appropriate dresses are here: http://www.christianvsiriano.com (image shown is from Christian Siriano's Spring/Summer 2010 collection).

So, check back in about 2 weeks when we have pics from the big event or see it in person (tickets are for sale- http://www.greenweddingshowcase.com/attend.shtml ) and let us know what you think.

This is probably a good lesson for each of us though...before we walk out the door each morning, we should ask ourselves, "What Would Christian Siriano Say?" If it is "Hot Mess" and not "Ferosh", well...

Things We {Heart}: Mismatched Bridesmaid Dresses!

Mismatched bridesmaids dresses is one of our favorite new trends out there. Pick a color scheme and let your maids run with it. This opens up so many options for them. They can easily go to their favorite store and pick a dress they will definitely wear again. And we all know you want your besties to love the dress they wear in your wedding. And they will. 

Here are a couple of great examples!

 (Photo from Tinywater Photography)

 

(Photography by SugarLove Weddings, bridesmaids dresses from Rose and Ruby)

Did you have mismatched bridesmaids for your wedding? We'd LOVE to see pics! Leave a comment with a link to your snapfish, flickr or picasa pics to show off your bridesmaids! Or post them on our Facebook page!

The Results: Where Do All the Dresses Go? (Part 2)

(image from redphotoco.com)

...continued from Part 1...
 
Doing the Math:

“I have a collection of dresses that I will never wear again. Each dress cost well over $200 and no one considered the wearability I would get out of them.” If you had 5 bridesmaid dresses in your closet that cost $200/each, that's $1000 in dresses just laying around!

In 2008, there were over 2.2 million weddings:
• With 4 bridesmaids on average, that's over 8.8 million bridesmaid dresses purchased.
• At $150 per dress, bridal parties spend $1.32 Billion on dresses/year.
• Which is roughly 2.7 million cubic-ft of dresses. Enough to fill 41,000 pick-up trucks!!!

When we start reusing bridesmaid dresses:
• If 1/3rd of all bridesmaid dresses were reused, bridal parties could save ~$220 million.
• And the landfill impact could be reduced by nearly 3 million dresses.
• This would mean 13,000 fewer truckloads each year.

So, you can probably see the impact of purchasing or reselling a once-worn bridesmaid dress could have. We hope that you join us in our goal of saving girls, like you, money, while also reducing the environmental impact—one dress at a time. I know this is a lot of info and a lot of numbers thrown at you. We just hope that one day you might think of this before you throw away your bridesmaid dress or let it sit in your closet. Somewhere in the U.S. there is another girl looking for the exact dress you have sitting in your closet right now. Together, we can change a part of the bridal industry and help each other out.

Data compiled from: Independent study by Project: Ruffle Swap; Bridesmaid’s Attire Survey - January 2010 Wedding Bee Boards (300+ respondents); theweddingreport.com

 

Iz can see my shadowz.

Happy Groundhog's Day! Unfortunately, we have 6 more weeks of winter. :( But lucky for us all, the Groundhog has demanded we have a dress promo! Upload your dress for sale today and get 100% of the sale. We are waiving our already tiny consignment fee.

Just say you were referred by the "Groundhog" when you upload a dress on ruffleswap.com and no matter when your dress sells you keep the full amount of the sale! It doesn't have to sell today you just have to post it today!!!

Happy swapping! ~the Groundhog

The Results: Where Do all the Bridesmaid Dresses Go? (Part 1)

So, as you know, we have been looking into the mind of the bride and bridesmaid regarding buying bridesmaids dresses go. Here is some of what we found:

How much should a reasonable bridesmaid dress cost? 
98% say a reasonable dress is under $200 

How much will you ask your bridesmaids to spend on attire?
24% will ask friends to pay over $200 

How much does your dream or your favorite designer bridesmaid’s dress cost?
65% of brides said their dream bridesmaid dresses are over $200

What did you do with your bridesmaid dress? 
• "(It's) still in my closet."
• "I soaked it in coffee and tea and stained it to make it look worn and torn and old... then put fake blood  all over it and used it for a Halloween costume!"
• "I saved mine. It was actually a halter and a skirt the skirt was an ugly color to have on a skirt so I keep it in my closet, and am going to make something out of it someday."
• "I threw them out as quick as possible. They were hideous, except for one blue one."
• "I loved what my cousin picked out, but 3 years later it's still sitting in the closet at my parent's house."
• "In my six turns as a bridesmaid, I’ve worn one dress again. It was when I was a bridesmaid in another wedding, but it still counts!" 
72% will never wear the dress again (534 respondents)
55% want the dress to be “cheap”

We would love to hear your reactions and your personal stories, please leave us a comment.

Data compiled from: Independent study by Project: Ruffle Swap; Bridesmaid’s Attire Survey - January 2010 Wedding Bee Boards (300+ respondents); answers.yahoo.com.